AirAsia's dividends: generous but appropriate?

AirAsia published its 4th quarter results. The (in general good) results over the whole year were boosted by a one-off profit from listing their company in Thailand in a previous quarter, no surprise there.

Most remarkably was the large dividend payment, as described by The Star:

"It has also declared a special dividend of 18 sen, on top of a final dividend of 6 sen, which will bring the full-year dividend per share (DPS) to 24 sen. This translates to a DPS yield of 8.4% at RM2.86."

There are two very large financial concerns (next to increased competition from Malindo) regarding AirAsia, their debt and their capital commitments:

 

 

Total Debt stands at RM 8.4 Billion (and increasing) while Capital Commitments are almost RM 65 Billion (also increasing), and the company is paying out rich dividends?

If the company fails (due to the heavy debt burden and/or the capital commitments), the company might be deemed to be "too big to fail" by the government.

And that means that (as usual) the taxpayers are on the hook, to save the company.

Considering that, is the new, generous, dividend policy really appropriate? Should it not preserve cash to ensure it can meet its financial obligations?